Category: 5. Entertainment

This July, join us on the rooftop at e-flux Screening Room for Decision Moment, a four-part series that reflects on historical moments of action and inaction and examines cinematic ways of approaching them. The series features pairings of work by John Smith and Krzysztof Kieślowski; Basim Magdy and Anocha Suwichakornpong; Tiffany Sia and Iva Radivojević; Rea Tajiri and Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

At Bar Laika, we look forward to two editions of Playback, evenings of listening with Lamin Fofana on July 9 and Abby Echiverri on July 23.

On  July 16, join e-flux at Public Records for a summer issue launch party co-presented with BOMB Magazine, n+1, and CLMP.

We will take a pause in programming for August, returning in the fall with talks, screenings, performances, and more. We look forward to seeing you at our July events.

Decision Moment
e-flux Screening Room rooftop, 172 Classon Ave, Brooklyn Tuesdays after sunset, July 8–29

I. Narratives of Chance
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
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Contemplating the fragile and incomprehensible boundary between causality and contingency as well as between pre-determinacy and free will, these works by John Smith and Krzysztof Kieślowski explore counter-factual worlds. Smith’s The Girl Chewing Gum (1976) upturns the supposed authority of a director’s voiceover to, in the words of A.L. Rees, “play word against picture and chance against order.” In Kieślowski’s Blind Chance (1981), three diverging timelines, triggered by the single moment of a young man running to catch a train, provide the structure for an exploration of the limits of freedom under authoritarianism. Read more here.

II. Simultaneous Pasts
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
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Overcoming the inherent difficulties of an objective reconstruction of the past, and thinking along Buddhist or quantum understandings of space and time, where multiple, equally valid perspectives coexist, these films approach past events as lived experiences that become most tangible in their multiple versions. Basim Magdy’s The Many Colors of the Sky Radiate Forgetfulness (2014) operates against linear timelines with its dreamy, semi-abstract visuals of ruins and habitats bathed in surreal colors. By The Time It Gets Dark (2016) by Anocha Suwichakornpong circles around the 1976 massacre of student activists in Thailand, inhabiting a state of narrative diffraction where characters shift identities as cinema turns inward on its representational limits. Read more here.

III. Erasure that Persists
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
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Approaching traumatic experiences as refrains that persistently shape personal identities, the works in this program explore cinematic ways of grappling with events that have stripped away individual agency. In A Child Already Knows (2024) by Tiffany Sia, half-remembered scenes of a historical cusp are recalled alongside a montage of appropriated early Mao-era children’s animations, assembling fragmentary memories and conjuring images in lieu of historical reenactments too costly to make. For the eleven-year old protagonist of When the Phone Rang (2024) by Iva Radivojević, one phone call erases her country, history, and identity. Through uses a mix of scripted, performative recreations, the film excavates the residue of childhood memories shaped by the dissolution of Yugoslavia and its aftermath. Read more here.

IV. History Remade
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
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Can reenactments create new spaces for critique and self-reflection? The films in this final screening of Decision Moment illustrate the ethical and aesthetic implications of cinematic reconstructions of past events. Off Limits (1988) by Rea Tajiri juxtaposes the text of a near-contemporaneous film portraying Saigon in 1968 against the soundtrack and image of Easy Rider, the 1968 American production, highlighting the complex associations between 1960s hippie iconography and memories of the Vietnam War. In A Moment of Innocence (1996) by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the filmmaker casts himself and a former adversary—a policeman he stabbed in his youth—as directors of reenactments, folding autobiography into fiction, revolutionary fervor into post-revolution disillusionment. Read more here.

Playback
Bar Laika, 224 Greene Ave, Brooklyn

Playback 0016 with Lamin Fofana
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Lamin Fofana joins Bar Laika for the sixteenth edition of Playback. Fofana is an artist and musician currently located in New York City. His music contrasts the reality of our world with what’s beyond, and explores questions of movement, migration, alienation, and belonging. Fofana’s overlapping interests in history and the present, and his practice of transmuting text into the affective medium of sound, manifests in multisensory live performances and installations featuring original music compositions, field recordings and archival material. Read more here.

Playback 0017 with Abby Echiverri
Wednesday, July 22, 2025
The seventeenth edition of Playback features Abby Echiverri, a producer based in Brooklyn whose intense curiosity has led her to take on a variety of roles as a touring musician, sound engineer, DJ, and VJ. Her releases include her debut EP on The Bunker NY, entitled Ab Initio, as well as releases on Acid Camp, Patterns of Perception, Going In, and self-releases. Echiverri’s left-field musical influences, deft hardware manipulations, and experienced engineering meld into an inventive interpretation in her live techno sets. Read more here.

2025 summer issue party
Public Records, 233 Butler St, Brooklyn
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Tickets
Join e-flux at Public Records on Wednesday, July 16 for a summer issue party co-presented with BOMB, n+1, and CLMP. Doors open at 8pm, and the first round of drinks is on us. The sixth issue of e-flux Index brings together 82 contributors across 580 pages, weaving long-form essays on art, architecture, and contemporary culture with exhibition and film reviews, interviews, theoretical texts, and opinion pieces—organized into eleven thematic digressions. Ranging from monuments to marionettes, climate devastation to sonic resistance, the texts in Index 6 explore the margins where new ways of thinking—and living—begin to take shape. Read about the summer issues from BOMB and n+1, and find more details here.

Stay tuned to upcoming programs on our website, or subscribe to our Events mailing list here.

For more information about programs at e-flux, contact program [​at​] e-flux.com; for information about Playback at Bar Laika, contact laika [​at​] e-flux.com.

Beaufille’s sister-duo Chloé and Parris Gordon are switching things up. After years of debuting collections twice a year on the pre-season calendar, the cofounders are now releasing four carefully curated collections a year.

“We’ve been running our own e-commerce now for about four years, and we really felt the lull between when you do two seasons a year — promoting the same collection to our audience for over six months became challenging. We started to understand ourselves why retailers want this constant newness and several drops,” Parris Gordon explained. “With running our own e-commerce, we really have the feedback of when our clients are buying the product, and what that [product is].”

Beyond evening dressing and their popular feminine stretch lace styles, which come in a lovely burgundy hue for resort, the strategic shift also allows the duo to “take a few risks that retailers wouldn’t take,” Chloé Gordon added, noting that their initial handbag launch and higher-priced styles have performed well on their e-commerce.

Taking this knowledge, Chloé Gordon said resort was all about offering more special, novelty styles and investment pieces designed for holiday dressing. For instance, a great selection of new leopard printed pony hair leather layers, including tailored jackets, miniskirts, jean-like pants and playfully chic handbags. The duo also started working with artisans in India to develop their new drapey silk cotton fringed layers that nicely played into their holiday mindset.

“I think people are dressing a little less formal, and we interpreted that into a lot of looks,” Chloé Gordon said of the collection’s new takes on masculine tailoring, such as a pale pink sharp yet sexy, plunging keyhole blouse with a one-button brown suit or an intriguing shirt dress designed around the “idea of a jacket tied around your waist, but it is functional,” she added.

For the brand’s latest jewelry, Parris Gordon said she was into designing earrings, rings and necklaces that felt easy to dress up and had a bit of a casual element to them, as seen through resort’s great beaded sterling silver or lapis lazuil chandelier tassel earrings and necklaces, oversize gemstone studs and slightly oversize hoops.

Without singing a note or swinging a weapon, one character from “Kpop Demon Hunters” has entranced the audience off pure vibes alone.

We’re talking about Derpy Tiger, an oversized blue cat with glowing yellow eyes, a snaggletooth grin and a penchant for righting overturned vessels. The breakout character is a courier, delivering messages between rival K-pop band members: Jinu, a demon seeking to drain souls from fans listening to his tunes, and Rumi, an idol by day and a hunter by night, protecting the souls of humanity.

Co-directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, “Kpop Demon Hunters” has quickly become a hit for Netflix, claiming the No. 1 spot on the streamer’s English-langauge Top 10 list and ranking in the Top 10 in all countries globally, with an additional 24.2 million views in its second week. Derpy Tiger has ridden this wave as well, with Netflix boasting how the character’s plushie is among its Top 5 sold items in its shop for the year already.

We’re introduced to Derpy in a late-night scene when he emerges from a portal from the Underworld and promptly knocks over a flowerpot. Several awkward seconds pass as the stubby-legged feline attempts to set the pot back upright, but fails every time. Who knows how long the tenacious tabby would have continued with this Sisyphean task had Rumi not stepped in? And with that, he won over the hearts if not souls of the audience. Take a look:

“When I saw the pot scene with Derpy I thought that it was genius. It’s so good,” raved story artist Radford Sechrist told Salon. “I believe the idea came from a story room and it was first storyboarded by an artist named Jessie Wong.”

Sechrist, who happens to be married to Kang, is the veteran animator tasked with designing the cat who would be king of derps.

“He is the creator of ‘Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts,’ so that whole aesthetic is his,” Kang said about Sechrist. “He started as a character designer and he storyboarded for the movie as well, and wrote a lot of the scenes. When you’re doing storyboards, you get a character that has no design so you also end up drawing it and designing it. The design of the cat is based on minhwa, which is a folk art that depicts this tiger and it’s always paired with a magpie.”

Minhwa is a style of Korean folk art popular during the Chosun era, with the Hojak-do genre specializing in images of tigers, magpies and pine trees. And while these images were often hung up at entrances for the new year – tigers were seen as keeping evil at bay while magpies would deliver good news – the way these animals were depicted together evolved over time to become more satirical by the 17th century. The once powerful tiger, a stand-in for the ruling class of aristocrats, was painted to look foolish and yes, derpy, hence the nickname “idiot tiger” (바보호랑이). In contrast, the magpie was positioned over the cat and represented the common folk, cheekily flipping the hierarchy of the day.

“The way the tiger is depicted in this art is so funny,” said Kang. “It’s very goofy, and that is the reason why we call him Derpy Tiger. Those drawings are very derpy. He’s always walleyed and weird looking.”

Sechrist reveals that while he did draw on that traditional art for inspiration he also looked closer to home.

“I would say 90% based on the minhwa artwork, which was incredible to reference and 10% is our cat,” he said. “For instance the shorter body and shorter legs feel like our cat. A bit of the neck as well, how our cat has this fluffy bump. We named our cat ‘Yumyan’ after Yumyan Hammerpaw, a cat character from a show I created called ‘Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts.’ But we call her ‘Fluffy’ for short because she’s a long-haired Himalayan cat.”

Check out an early Derpy model and then swipe to check out Fluffy:

“I was a little nervous at first to design something based in history with cultural significance, but we had an advisor who was supportive of the idea,” he added. “We wanted to include a tiger in the movie because tigers are the national animal of South Korea. Also, a lot of us on the crew are cat lovers.”

As for Derpy’s bright blue hue, Sechrist said, “I believe that may have been [production designer] Helen Chen giving the tiger a more magical feel. I was designing it closer to the old artwork which was gray.”

Although Derpy clearly had star potential, he didn’t initially have a defined role in the movie.

“We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is such a fun character that we could have in the movie,’ but we didn’t want to just have a sidekick,” acknowledged Kang. “We didn’t want to just do that, so we put it off to the side . . . We [also] needed some way for Rumi and Jinu to communicate with each other. We wanted him to send her an invite to meet, and it felt odd for him to text her. He’s 400 years old. He doesn’t know how to use a cellphone. So at first, we were like, ‘Do we use a carrier pigeon?’

“Our production designer, [Helen Mingjue Chen] did this really beautiful painting of a statue of a tiger turning into a real tiger, and Jinu is standing next to it and he has his shirt open for no reason. When we saw that, we were like, ‘Oh, maybe he is Jinu’s pet, and he can use this tiger to deliver messages to Rumi.’ So that’s how Derpy was integrated into the movie as a mailbox basically, and then the bird tagged along with him.”

Check out Chen’s art that started it all:

The bird Kang refers to is Sussy, the magpie who accompanies Derpy. (It should be noted that neither of these names are official (yet), but rather the default names given by the crew for the creatures.) Sussy has two distinguishing features. First, he has too many eyes. While most fans believe he has three eyes (which led to some conjecture of its relationship to the three-legged crows in Eastern mythology), we are only seeing one side of his head. “I can confirm it does have six eyes total, three on each side,” said Sechrist.

Neither Kang nor Sechrist could recall who came up with the idea for the additional eyes or why he has them, but it could be similar to the decision to make Derpy blue. A six-eyed magpie is a good indicator that it’s from another realm and not your average two-eyed terrestrial bird.

Sussy’s second defining feature is his love of hats, namely a tall, jaunty gat, similar to the ones that the Saja Boys wear in the Underworld and in their performance of “Your Idol.” Whence came this love of headgear? In the film, Jinu tells Rumi, “I made [the hat] for the tiger, but the bird keeps stealing it.”

“We were in a brainstorm and someone asked, ‘Why does the bird have a tiny hat?’ And I just said, ‘Jinu made it for the tiger, but the bird keeps stealing it.’ It got a laugh so I suggested maybe Jinu actually says that. I always love it when everyone is just riffing ideas together, and you can actually throw some of those ideas in. The energy in a brainstorm room is really fun, especially with Maggie; she’s so funny. I still remember her pitching me corn eyes or even, ‘What if there’s a demon boy band?’”

The success of and “Kpop Demon Hunters” has opened the audience’s eyes to how collaborative the creative process is for what we see onscreen, which especially true of animation. Fans hungry for more of the story are clamoring for a sequel, and in the meantime are finding the rich treasure trove of concept art and other story and visual elements that led up to the finished product. Secrhist has felt this love from fans of the movie as well.

“The team elevated the tiger design and made it so cool – from Helen Chen’s color choices and [art director] Scott Watanabe’s refinements, as well as the modeling, animation and lighting,” he said. “At every step this movie was such a labor of love so I figured if we were all fans, everyone else would love it too. But I didn’t anticipate the cultural phenomenon aspect. I’ve never been part of a movie that went so viral online. It’s kind of amazing to see how much people love it.”

In addition to dominating Netflix streaming, the film’s original soundtrack has broken through as well, entering the Billboard 200 at No. 8. This is the highest-charting soundtrack from an animated film since the OST from another Sony Animated film, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” ranked No. 7 on the Billboard 200 in July 2023. Over on Spoitfy, the cast soundtrack is currently No. 5 on the Weekly Top Albums on Spotify globally and No. 6 in the U.S. It also boast the most spots on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs Global list, with the anthem “Golden” the highest at No. 3.

The post “Kpop Demon Hunters”: Jinu’s seriously derpy tiger origin story appeared first on Salon.com.

The royals were out in force at Royal Ascot in mid June, days of world-class horse racing, with spectators in top hats and whimsical fascinators sipping on Pimm’s Cup and riding in open carriages to the course in Berkshire, England, about 25 miles west of London. Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, of course, was not among the well-dressed crowd.

Minutes after Buckingham Palace’s official carriage list was released — indicating that Kate and her husband, Prince William, would arrive in a horse-drawn landau — Kensington Palace announced the 43-year-old would not attend. After initially claiming the list was sent in error, a  royal source told ABC News that Kate was “disappointed” to miss the social event, but “has to find the right balance as she fully returns to public-facing duties.”

It’s a stark reminder that the princess, who revealed in March 2024 that she was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer, is still not completely well. And once again, she is torn between her duties as the future queen and her need to take care of her health. “It’s a delicate balance whereby Kate is striving to care for herself and still carry out royal duties,” an insider tells Star. “Kate has good days and bad days, that’s just part of her recovery.”

Finding Meaning

The princess’ illness, which involved abdominal surgery in January 2024 as well as chemotherapy, has made her more reflective of how she spends her time. In a video last June, the mom of George, 11, Charlotte, 10, and 6-year-old Louis explained that on bad days she felt “weak” and “tired,” adding, “But on the good days, when you feel stronger, you want to make the most of feeling well.”

While she skipped Ascot, Kate made sure to fulfill a less glitzy obligation, penning a June 20 letter to draw attention to the work of children’s hospices. Naming two that she is patron of, Kate wrote of the privilege of seeing them “lifting spirits through laughter, fun and play, as well as listening, holding, caring and sharing. They support children and families through life, death and beyond.”

Her own brush with mortality has left Kate even more devoted to her young family. “As harrowing as the illness was on Kate, it did teach her a lot about priorities,” notes the insider. “Spending time with her kids, as well as William of course, is her biggest priority bar none.” She’s also determined not to worry her children. “She keeps them up to speed on her health,” adds the insider, “reassuring the kids that she’s getting better and better as time goes on.”

Future Queen

Kate’s health setback comes as her father-in-law, King Charles III, is also battling cancer, reportedly undergoing weekly treatments. The 76-year-old’s declining health has no doubt put pressure on Kate and future king William, 43, as they face the prospect of ascending to the throne far sooner than they expected. “Kate is acutely aware that she’ll be queen one day and is mindful that she has to prepare for that eventuality,” explains the insider.

At the same time, Charles — who attended Royal Ascot with his wife, Queen Camilla, 77 — has barely slowed his busy schedule. “Seeing King Charles carrying on with his full workload even whilst he’s so poorly is something Kate finds admirable,” says the insider. “But at the same time there’s probably a lingering worry that she may look like she’s slacking by comparison.”

Not that the king is pointing fingers. Throughout their illnesses, Charles and Kate have grown close, reveals the insider. “They’ve bonded enormously. There’s so much mutual respect between the two, and as awful as it’s been, the one positive is that it’s brought them so much closer together.”

William, too, has discovered a new appreciation for the woman he met as an undergrad at Scotland’s University of St Andrews and wed in 2011. “He’s quick to quell any anxiety or jitters she may have,” says the source. “He often goes out of his way to reassure Kate that by taking a step back from time to time she’s by no means neglecting her royal duties.”

As one of the most popular royals in the family, Kate is still learning how to put herself first. “The people love her, the royal family appreciate her,” says the insider. “ Still, she’s a perfectionist at heart, always striving to contribute and fulfill her role to the best of her abilities.

Morning everyone. Although he could still face years in prison for two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution, Sean “Diddy” Combs fell to his knees in relief and his supporters celebrated wildly outside after a jury in New York found the music mogul not guilty of the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. A Guardian Australia analysis shows the big four banks are not making it easy for customers to get bonus interest despite watchdog recommendations, auditors have condemned the navy’s handling of bribery allegations, and a Victorian city is bidding to be the “capital of big things”.

Australia

• Storm eases | The damaging weather system that has brought widespread havoc to much of coastal New South Wales is expected to ease today. But heavy conditions will continue along parts of the coast and thousands remain without power.

• ‘Factional hacks’ | Newly elected Liberal senator Jess Collins has hit out at “factional hacks” in the party’s NSW branch, insisting a push for quotas to boost female representation is the wrong approach for trying to beat Labor at the next election.

• All at sea | Defence officials failed to properly document and investigate bribery allegations made against navy contractor officials, a scathing audit report on the multibillion-dollar commissioning and maintenance of two military ships has found.

• Bank blank | More than 18 months after regulatory advice that Australia’s major banks should help customers qualify for bonus interest rates on savings products, several of the recommendations have not been implemented by the big four, an analysis by Guardian Australia has found.

• Pear share | The regional Victorian city of Shepparton is in the running to be the “capital of big things” with a $1.3m plan to build a giant pear to go alongside the world’s largest Murray cod.

World

• Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ | The House of Representatives is at a standstill as Republican leaders continue to try to rally holdouts against Donald Trump’s sweeping tax cut and spending legislation, after it cleared the Senate with the narrowest of margins. And after last-minute negotiations, the US and Vietnam struck a trade agreement that sets 20% tariffs on many of the south-east Asian country’s exports.

• Exclusive | The Israeli military used a 230kg bomb – a powerful and indiscriminate weapon that generates a massive blast wave and scatters shrapnel over a wide area – when it attacked a target in a crowded beachfront cafe in Gaza on Monday, evidence seen by the Guardian has revealed.

• Combs guilty | A New York Jury has found Sean “Diddy” Combs guilty of two counts of engaging women in prostitution but was cleared of the more serious offences of sex trafficking and racketeering, after a closely watched seven-week federal trial marked by emotional and graphic testimony. Outside the court, supporters danced and celebrated the verdict. Here are some key moments from the court drama.

• Reeves’ tears | The UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, appeared to be left in tears at prime minister’s questions as the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, attacked the government over its U-turn on welfare cuts. That climbdown leaves the government with its authority shredded and a £5bn hole to plug.

• Drought threat | As Europe’s heatwave moved eastwards, a new report says that drought is pushing tens of millions of people around the world to the edge of starvation.

Full Story

Bougainville’s rocky path to independence

Nour Haydar speaks to Ben Doherty about the road to independence for Australia’s Pacific neighbour and the risk of repeating mistakes from the past.

In-depth

It’s been miserable being a fan of North Melbourne in recent years. But the AFL club’s centenary celebrations are a chance for everyone involved to show that their investment in top-end picks and highly talented youth might just be about to pay off, writes Martin Pegan.

Not the news

After years of fighting with her sister, Lucinda Price writes today about how it took their father’s cancer diagnosis for them “to form a truce after 26 years of full-pelt warfare … Our hatred just silently slipped away. I guess I felt as though my parents finally deserved to experience having children who didn’t hate each other”.

Sport

• Rugby union | Queensland Reds put up a good fight but the British & Irish Lions had too much class as the second tour match ended in a 52-12 defeat for the local side in Brisbane last night.

• Tennis | British No 1 Emma Raducanu set up a huge third-round match against Aryna Sabalenka after beating 2023 champion Marketa Vondrousova at Wimbledon, while defending men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz breezed through against plucky Ollie Tarvet. British tennis player Jodie Burrage has said she has had to stop herself looking at her phone due to online abuse – some from gamblers, some from about her appearance – after her first-round Wimbledon exit.

• Cricket | India’s captain, Shubman Gill, made an unbeaten century as he dug in to steady his team and hold off England’s bowlers on the first day of the second test at Edgbaston.

• Women’s football | Euro 2025 hosts Switzerland were defeated by Norway 2-1 this morning after Finland secured a narrow win against 10-player Iceland in the opening match. And Matildas star Ellie Carpenter has joined Sam Kerr at Chelsea with a big move from Lyon.

The Australian claims the public service has grown to a record size under the Albanese government. The management of Victoria’s water would be reshaped to enshrine traditional owners as rights holders under a proposal from the truth-telling inquiry, the Age reports. The Courier Mail looks at how the Brisbane-based beauty product business Lucas Papaw went from near-bust to boom in five years. And residents on the south coast of NSW might not have seen many in the past couple of rain-drenched days but this season’s whale sightings are at a record high, the Mercury reports.

What’s happening today

• Economy | New vehicle sales figures for June released at 11am and international trade data from the ABS at 11.30am.

• Brisbane | The Queensland deputy premier, Jarrod Bleijie, gives an Olympics update.

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Brain teaser

And finally, here are the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.

HIDIVE KICKS-OFF “SUMMER OF DUBS” FOR FANS WITH SLICE OF LIFE DRAMA “FLOWER AND ASURA” PREMIERE ON JULY 16

Anime Streaming Service to Release Fresh Batch of Popular English Dubs of New and Recent Exclusive Simulcast Series Alongside Ongoing Titles Throughout This Summer

Following Flower and Asura, the “Summer of Dubs” continues with the August premieres of the supernatural romance drama Call of the Night Season 2 and the coming-of-age music drama Rock is a Lady’s Modesty followed by the second part (Cour 2) of the supernatural historical fantasy series Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho in September.

In addition to the “Summer of Dubs” series, fan can also watch new weekly episodes from a trio of currently ongoing English dubs, the fan-favorite rom-com series 2.5 Dimensional Seduction and I’m Living with an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!?, and the first part (Cour 1) of the supernatural historical fantasy series Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho Cour 1.

Together in all, including new simulcast episodes of Call of the Night Season 2, Bad Girl and Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho Cour 2, HIDIVE offers fan nearly a dozen new episodes to enjoy each week all this summer.

New & Upcoming Summer 2025 English Dub Releases

Flower and Asura		Call of the Night Season 2
English Dub Premiere July 16		English Dub Premiere in August
SLICE OF LIFE		SUPERNATURAL ROMANCE
On the picturesque island of Tonakijima with a population of only 600, Hana’s favorite pastime is reading literature to the island’s children. Her narration skills are second to none, and Mizuki, the president of the school’s broadcasting club immediately recognizes Hana’s ability to engage with others and draw them into her recitations. Invited by Mizuki to join the club, Hana embarks on a journey to discover her true love of reading — and maybe even change the course of her life along the way.		Ko overcomes his confusion about becoming a vampire and decides to “like” Nazuna, while Nazuna resolves to make Ko “fall in love” with her. Without understanding what “love” even is, the two of them spend their nights together in a frenzy. Meanwhile, Detective Uguisu Anko is closing in with her plot to kill vampires, not just Nazuna.  A vampire’s weakness is “anything they were attached to when they were human” and so they all try to get rid of this weakness before it’s too late. But, Nazuna has no memory of her human life. What is Nazuna’s hidden past? Why did Anko start killing vampires? And what is the “secret” that Nazuna and Anko share? For Ko, Nazuna, Anko, a fun “late night” doesn’t end here… a new “night” begins!

Rock is a Lady’s Modesty		Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho  Cour 2
English Dub Premiere in August		English Dub Premiere in September
COMING OF AGE		HISTORICAL FANTASY
At an elite all-girls’ academy where refined young ladies gather, Lilisa Suzunomiya, now the daughter of a real estate tycoon after her mother remarried, is forced to abandon her guitar and rock music to fit in. However, her passion is reignited by sounds from the old school building, where she meets a skilled drummer who shares her love for rock. Together, they embrace their inner rockstars, elegantly clashing and shouting their way through the academy in this captivating tale of grace and rebellion.		In the Edo period, there was a shrine maiden called “Itskihime” in the mountain village of Kadono. Jinta, a wandering orphan who, along with his younger sister Suzune, drifted into the village and grew up to become the shrine maiden’s guardian, ventures into the forest to defeat a mysterious demon who speaks to him of the far future and the threat of a Demon God. So begins this epic supernatural historical fantasy series that follows a demon hunter through his century-spanning journey from the Edo to Heisei periods—all-the-while questioning his wielding of a sword.

Current Ongoing English Dub Releases

2.5 Dimensional Seduction		I’m Living with an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!?		Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho Cour 1
ROM-COM		ROM-COM		HISTORICAL FANTASY
New dub episodes every Wednesday		New dub episodes every Wednesday		New dub episodes every Wednesday

ABOUT HIDIVE

Prince William is infuriated as Meghan Markle launches her latest ‘As Ever’ product.

The Prince of Wales is upset as his sister-in-law in California drops her alcohol brand and sells out within an hour.

Royal expert Kinsey Schofield told The Sun: “It’s not lost on Prince William that Meghan has launched an alcohol brand on his mother’s birthday, the very mum he lost in a drink driving tragedy.”

Ms Schofield said: “Timing an alcohol launch to Diana’s birthday wasn’t just a misstep, it was borderline cruel.” 

She added: “To claim ignorance here doesn’t hold up—it wasn’t just insensitive. It felt like a betrayal of the very narrative she’s working so hard to craft.”

Prince Harry left the Royal Family back in 2020 alongside wife Meghan Markle and son, Prince Archie. The couple later accused the Royal Family of showcasing racism towards their son and publicly shared their grievances on television. Harry and Meghan now live in California, where they also welcomed their daughter, Princess Lilibet.